Octavia grunted as she let the luggage she’d been carrying fall to the floor of the hallway.

“Whoa, Tavi, easy,” Vinyl said as she quickly stepped aside. “You almost hit me with those things.”

“Well, maybe if you’d been using that unicorn magic of yours to help me lift it, I wouldn’t have dropped it,” Octavia snapped.

It was late in the evening. The two of them had been riding the train all day and only now, so late in the evening, were they going to be able to rest.

They’d come to visit Octavia’s cousin, Pinkie Pie, after getting a letter saying she was now a mother, with a healthy little Earth Pony filly.

Octavia had intended to book a room in a motel or something whilst they stayed, but Vinyl had insisted they use the apartment she’d bought the last time she came to Ponyville, since it wouldn’t cost them more.

Of course, Vinyl had had a few ciders on the train to Ponyville, making her a little bit tipsy. Not drunk, but tipsy enough that she couldn’t find her way to the apartment and carry her luggage at the same time, leaving Octavia to do all the heavy lifting.

“Aw, come on, Tavi,” Vinyl said, frowning. “You’re not still angry about that time you had to bail me out of the Manhatten Prison, are you? It was months ago.”

Octavia’s eyes snapped to Vinyl, who’s eyes shrank in fear a little behind her shades. “You think that is why I was and am still angry?” she asked, taking a step forward. “No no-no-no-no-no, Miss Scratch. That is not what still makes me angry about that time. What makes me angry is that you not only managed to get yourself so wasted that you caused so much havoc that night, but you also got my cousin completely wasted!”

“Yeah, well—” Vinyl tried.

“My cousin!” Octavia put emphasis on the second word. “My cousin, Pinkie Pie, who ironically, is the pony we’ve come to visit. You got her, her so drunk that she forgot that I am your marefriend and simply called me that. Do you have any idea just how wasted Pinkie Pie would have to be to even think about forgetting a pony, especially one that is her own family?!”

“Uh...” Vinyl backed away, not wanting to be near Octavia when she was this mad, but with no way of escaping. It would take a miracle from Celestia herself to save her.

At that moment the doorbell rang.

Octavia’s head snapped so quickly in its direction, that Vinyl felt a little ill.

“Who in their right mind would be ringing the doorbell at this time of night?!” she asked, glaring at the door.

“Door to door sales ponies?” Vinyl suggested.

“At “this” time of night?” Octavia gave her a skeptical look from over her shoulder.

Vinyl shrugged. “Maybe they’re just finishing up late... or trying to get in really early?”

Octavia’s eyes narrowed at the door. “Oh, they are, are they?” she snarled, heading towards the door. “We’ll see about that.”

Vinyl did not envy the pony on the other side of the door who was dumb enough to have come at this time of the night, but was thankful, all the same. Now, the anger Octavia was currently feeling would be directed at them and not her, though she didn’t wish that on anypony.

Octavia thrust the door open, shouting, “Do you have any idea the time of night?” before she noticed there was nopony standing there. She looked around, her glare still fixed on her face. “If there’s some teenage colts or fillies out there playing Ding Dong Dash, I swear you’ll be seeing just how hard the back of cello really is when I slam it against your thick skulls! Honestly, kids these days—”

She stopped, her eyes falling on a basket lying full of blue blanket in front of her. She looked around again, this time in confusion.

Returning her eyes to the basket, she saw a small note lying on top of the blanket. Picking it up, she opened it and read it.

“Please look after little Autum Breeze. I’m am entrusting you with their care.”

Autum Breeze?

Putting the note down, Octavia lifted a small bit of the blanket away, then stepped back and as a gasp escaped her, her anger forgotten. Wrapped in the blankets was a small foal, with brown coat and mane with streaks of yellow, orange and a lighter brown than the coat.
Octavia glanced around again, wondering who could’ve left a foal on their doorstep and why, before a cold evening breeze wind over her, causing her to shiver and think about the foal getting cold.

She bent down, picked the basket up in her mouth and carried it inside.

“So, who was it?” Vinyl asked as Octavia returned to the living room, where the unicorn had moved their things. “And what’s with the basket?”

Octavia said nothing, but lowered the basket and handed the note to Vinyl, while pushing the blankets back a little to get a better look at the foal they’d been entrusted with. Clearing whoever had left it didn’t know Vinyl wasn’t exactly the reasonable caregiver type.

Vinyl lifted her shades, frowning in confusion. “Autum Breeze? What would they want us to look after a season’s breeze? And why’d they leave the “n” out?”

“I think Autum Breeze is this foal’s name,” Octavia said, returning the blankets to where they’d been. She’d seen enough to know things a bit better. The foal was a Pegasus filly.

Vinyl, confused further by Octavia’s words, moved over to look into the basket, before her eyes widened in horror. “A foal? No way, Tavi! I can’t be a mom! Don’t you remember my dying wish?!”

“You mean the one you made while wasted, shortly before getting my cousin wasted as well?” Ocativa asked, her voice holding a threatening tone.

Knowing what that tone meant, Vinyl didn’t push that any further and watched as Octavia brused a strand of the foal’s mane from her eyes. “So... what’re we gonna do with her?”

Octavia sighed. “Well, whoever left her by the doorstep clearly thinks we’re suitable to look after her.”

At that, Vinyl’s eyes narrowed. “Wait. This is the first time I’ve visit Ponyville since before Rainbow Dash joined the Wonderbolts Reserves and filled in for Fleetfoot at that show I DJed. How could they know this place would have anypony in here tonight?”

“Or that there’d be somepony responsible enough to look after this foal,” Octavia said, then added, “Vinyl, do I have to bring up your dying wish?”

“Point taken,” Vinyl sighed, defeated, then returned to her previous expression. “Who did you tell that you’d be coming to Ponyville?”

Octavia frowned back. “Only Pinkie Pie and I expressly asked her not to let anypony else know I was coming, to avoid any hassles. You?”

Vinyl shook her head. “Told Neon I was going away for a few days, but didn’t say where.”

Octavia put a hoof to her chin. “So, somepony else must have somehow found out about it and knew when to put this foal on the doorstep, at a time when we’d both be here.”

“And with your cousin having Pinkie Promised to do as you asked, she couldn’t have blabbed,” Vinyl shook her head and moaned. “Argh! It’s too late for all this thinking, my head hurts already.”

Octavia sighed. As much as she’d rather know what was going on, she had to agree with her marefriend. It “was” too late for this. They’d have to just go to bed and think about it in the morning.

“So, what about when she needs changing?” Vinyl asked, her nose scrunching a little at the thought of a foal’s dirty diaper.

Octavia just scoffed. “You’re a unicorn. You can use your magic to change her. You won’t have to worry about actually touching her diaper when she needs changing.”

“Oh... yeah,” Vinyl said as she watched Octavia lift the foal out of the basket, then noticed something bulging underneath. “Huh? What’s that?”

Using her magic, she grabbed the things under the blankets and lifted them out. There were some extra diapers, foal powder, foal cream and a yellow box of what looked like Tic Tacs. “Cool,” she said, lowering the other things, opening the box, taking four of the yellow pills out and popping them in her mouth.

“Vinyl!” Octavia’s sudden and rather loud snap startled the unicorn, making her swallow the pills without even tasting them.

“Tavi, what did you do that for?” she pouted. “They were yellow, probably lemon flavoured. I haven’t gotten to try those kind yet.”

Octavia grabbed the box out of Vinyl’s magic with her free hoof and held it up to Vinyl’s face. Vinyla couldn’t help noticing the words “Mothering Pills” was written on the front with the image of a mare nursing a foal.

“These are Mothering Pills, Vinyl! Not Tic Tacs. Mothering Pills! They’re for mares who can’t make breast milk on their own!”

Vinyl cocked an eyebrow. “Huh?” A second later, however, she moaned, dropping onto one foreleg.

“Oh, for pity’s sake,” Octavia rolled her eyes and quickly glanced into the basket again, feeling relieved when she saw a breast pump and several bottles for feeding were also there (and wondered for a moment just how deep a sleeper Autum was if she could sleep while lying on all that), took out the pump and bottle, lowered Autum back in and led Vinyl towards the kitchen area saying, “Come on, you idiot. Let’s get that milk out of you. At least when Autum wakes up there’ll be milk waiting for her.”

Author's Notes:

Discord: Oh, ho-ho-ho. This is getting interesting, isn't it? I wonder how little Autum will react when he- i mean she wakes up and finds out what's happened.

And, if you all want to know, you're just going to have to wait. After all, Living Nightmare isn't finished yet.

Also, if you're wondering about what Octavia was referring to with Vinyl go here and you'll find out.

Anyway, i'd best be going. i have to inform celestia about what's happened and let her know things have been taken care of.

So, and it might be Autum, though i'm not sure which since there's also a foal filly Autum in another story, until next time, later everypony